Geneva School of Boerne hung with Holy Cross for the first half of Friday’s district showdown in Boerne, but the Knights pulled away with a strong second half and went on to defeat the Eagles, 46-14.
It was tied 14-14 early in the second, but Holy Cross took advantage of a few Geneva miscues and went on to score the final 32 points of the contest to drop the Eagles to 1-1 in district and 4-2 overall.
Geneva head coach Bob Rosenstiel said he was proud of how his young team fought against a veteran Knights squad.
“That’s a state-runner up team two years in a row,” the Eagles coach said about the Knights. “I only had four seniors suited up tonight and they had 18. We’re young, I had a ton of sophomores and a few freshmen that went toe to toe with Holy Cross. I’m so proud of these guys.”
Holy Cross won the field position and turnover battle on Friday. The Knights picked off five Geneva passes in the game and converted all five interceptions into touchdowns.
In the first half, Holy Cross started one drive at the Geneva 34-yard line after the first pick and another possession began at midfield after the second interception.
In between those two turnovers, the Eagles botched a punt attempt on 4th and 8 after a bad snap went over the punter’s head and the Knights took over at the Geneva 28 for another short field.
“They won field position all night,” Rosenstiel said. “We’re still young and making alignment mistakes. We have things to clean up.”
While the Knights had short fields, it was the opposite for Geneva. The Eagles had to march 93 yards on both of its scoring drives.
On Geneva’s first scoring drive, Eagles quarterback Caleb Quitadamo hit Shae McNew on a 13-yard touchdown pass to cap a 14-play drive that ate 4:12 off the clock.
On the Eagles’ second scoring drive that tied it up at 14-14 in the second quarter, Geneva moved the ball 13 plays and 97 yards. On a 4th and goal from the Holy Cross 2-yard line, the Eagles went for it and Quitadamo scrambled to buy himself time before finding a wideopen Chase Doran in the back of the end zone for the TD.
Parker Eiland booted the extra point and it was knotted at 14 with 9:27 before halftime, but the Knights were just getting warmed up, while Geneva didn’t score the rest of the way. Holy Cross tacked on two more scores before the break and went into intermission with a 27-14 lead.
Holy Cross added to its lead with two more touchdowns in the third quarter to open up a 40-14 advantage. About the only thing the Knights did wrong was miss a couple of extra points. They missed two PAT kicks and also failed to convert on a 2-point try.
After the Holy Cross defense came up with its fifth interception, Knights QB Rocky Orozco took it to the house from 71 yards to put the finishing touches on the victory.
Geneva will have a short week and hosts New Braunfels Christian on Thursday in Boerne, 7 p.m.
Star photo by Kerry Barboza
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